Mitigation Costs Research Articles

Debris flow susceptibility assessment based on information value and machine learning coupling method: from the perspective of sustainable development.

Accurately assessing the susceptibility of debris flow disasters is of great significance for reducing the cost of disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as disaster losses. Machine learning (ML) models have been widely used in the susceptibility assessment of debris flow disasters. However, these models often have randomness in the selection of non-disaster data, which can lead to redundant information and poor applicability and accuracy of susceptibility evaluation results. To address this issue, this paper focuses on debris flow disasters in Yongji County, Jilin Province, China; optimizes the sampling method of non-disaster datasets in machine learning susceptibility assessment; and proposes a susceptibility prediction model that couples information value (IV) with artificial neural network (ANN) and logistic regression (LR) models. A debris flow disaster susceptibility distribution map with higher accuracy was drawn based on this model. The model's performance is evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), information gain ratio (IGR), and typical disaster point verification methods. The results show that the rainfall and topography were found to be decisive factors in the occurrence of debris flow disasters, and the IV-ANN model established in this study had the highest accuracy (AUC = 0.968). Compared to traditional machine learning models, the coupling model produced an increase in economic benefit of about 25% while reducing the average disaster prevention and control investment cost by about 8%. Based on model's susceptibility map, this paper proposes practical disaster prevention and control suggestions that promote sustainable development in the region, such as establishing monitoring systems and information platforms to aid disaster management.

Deep decarbonisation pathways of the energy system in times of unprecedented uncertainty in the energy sector

Unprecedented investments in clean energy technology are required for a net-zero carbon energy system before temperatures breach the Paris Agreement goals. By performing a Monte-Carlo Analysis with the detailed ETSAP-TIAM Integrated Assessment Model and by generating 4000 scenarios of the world's energy system, climate and economy, we find that the uncertainty surrounding technology costs, resource potentials, climate sensitivity and the level of decoupling between energy demands and economic growth influence the efficiency of climate policies and accentuate investment risks in clean energy technologies. Contrary to other studies relying on exploring the uncertainty space via model intercomparison, we find that the CO2 emissions and CO2 prices vary convexly and nonlinearly with the discount rate and climate sensitivity over time. Accounting for this uncertainty is important for designing climate policies and carbon prices to accelerate the transition. In 70% of the scenarios, a 1.5 °C temperature overshoot was within this decade, calling for immediate policy action. Delaying this action by ten years may result in 2 °C mitigation costs being similar to those required to reach the 1.5 °C target if started today, with an immediate peak in emissions, a larger uncertainty in the medium-term horizon and a higher effort for net-zero emissions.

Solar parks: A review on impacts, mitigation mechanism through agrivoltaics and techno-economic analysis

Solar parks are mega solar projects to fast track renewable energy integration, while avoiding redundancy in electro-mechnical infrastruturing and land acquiring procedures. However these ground-mounted grid-integrated solar photovoltaic projects require vast land banks, which remain covered for the lifetime of the project.. The socio-economic and environmental externalities on at micro level affecting livelihoods often go unaccounted. Earlier works on impact assessment of large solar parks have considered environment, ecology, micro-climate at large while impact on livelihoods and long term externalities on socitial issues were not addressed. The effectivnes of agrivolticas as a mitigation mechanism was primarlity focused on type of crops vis-à-vis height of structures, water management and economic outputs. The current work has a reviewed agrivoltaic projects in India and identified the managaement practices, constraints, cost econmoics and policy framework. A review of works done on solar park impact assessment and mitigation mechanism by agrivoltaics are done in detail. The work has considered agrivoltaics from a social aspect and focused on impacts due to loss of livelihoods and associated externalities under social impact classification. A methodology in which agrivoltaics is taken as a self healing mechanism to environment and society is adopted. A conventional solar plant and an agrivoltaic plant are considered for study and three livelihood mechanisms namely medicinal plants, poultry and bee keeping are considered for techno-commecrcial analysis. It is found that while the medicinal plants in PV plants can improve the income by 8%, while poultry in solar parks bring additional income of 83%, considering one lifecycle, while bee keeping bring additional income of 4%. The economic analysis shows that agrivoltaic without workable business models for a captive power plant with 0.14$/kWh FiT breakeven at 3 years and 9 months while a captive plant with the same FiT without agrivoltaics breaks even in 2 years and 4 months. A captive plant with 0.14 $/kWh FiT with a workable business model will breakeven in 3 years and 3 months. A grid tied solar PV plants with a FiT of 0.03 $/kWh which has a breakeven of 13 years without agrivoltaics, may not breakeven within 25 years (plant life) without a workable business model. However, with a workable business model for agrivoltaics the grid tied solar PV plant with a FiT of 0.03 $/kWh will have a breakeven in 17 years and 8 months.The social impact assessment conclude that, livelihood impacts can lead to extinction of cultures, urban migrations, growth of uncontrolled peri‑urban regions, the long term impacts are beyond economics. Thus social impact mitigation cost (SIMC) along with environemental impact mitigation cost (EIMC) are considered as incentives or subsidied and the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) is calculated. It is found that levelised cost of energy for the conventional ground mounted solar PV plant is 0.03 $/kWh while for agrivoltaic plant without subsidies and incentives the LCOE is 0.052 $/kWh. For the agrivoltaic plant with a subsidy of 30% the LCOE is 0.046 $/kWh and with a further green incentive billing the LCOE can be brought down to 0.041 $/ kWh.

The Economic Impact of the Global Warming

Global warming is a phenomenon that causes the average surface temperature of the Earth to rise due to an increase in greenhouse gases. This rise in temperature has significant implications for the global economy, as it affects various sectors and regions differently. This paper reviews the literature on how global warming impacts the economy, focusing on four main aspects: gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, energy industry, agricultural, production output in different fields and tourism. The article also explores the cost-effectiveness of enacting strategies to alleviate and adjust to the financial consequences of global warming. The research finds that global warming could reduce GDP by up to 18% by 2050 if no action is taken, and that the costs of mitigation and adaptation are likely to be lower than the costs of inaction. The paper concludes that global warming is a systemic risk that requires urgent and coordinated action from governments, businesses, and individuals.

A tragedy of the horizons? An intertemporal perspective on public support for carbon taxes

Most collective dilemmas—that is, situations in which private interests contrast with collective interests—have an embedded intertemporal component in that they often imply that the rewards from defection are immediate but the rewards from cooperation are delayed and often accrue to people in the future. This also applies to carbon taxes since they imply additional individual costs for benefits which will mostly be enjoyed by future generations, which undermines their political support. In an experiment on a representative sample of 1000 United States adults, we presented individuals with twelve alternative carbon tax formulations with varying start dates, temporal horizons of carbon abatement objectives and revenue uses. We find that public support is highest when individuals can pre-commit to policies that start a few years into the future and for policies that express their emission cuts objectives in more distant and ambitious terms —i.e. achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 as opposed to halving emissions by 2030. Individual temporal discounting, exogenously measured, account for large part of these preferences. These preferences are in contrast with the most efficient policy, which is the one that starts immediately and distributes equitably mitigation costs across time. We find two ways to realign preferences with it. First, the most efficient policy becomes politically feasible when the tax includes a dividend that is redistributed to citizens. Delivering an economic compensation at the same time of the individual costs of the tax neutralizes the effect of individual discounting and of the policy's temporal context on tax support. Secondly, when the price of the carbon tax is adjusted upward to compensate for the opportunity cost of delaying its introduction, individuals start trading off its delay with avoidance of tax increases.

Opportunities and challenges of post-pandemic's new normal: Rethinking the contribution of the transport sector to China's carbon neutrality by 2060

As the post-pandemic world adjusts to a new normal, the deep decarbonization of the transport sector, which is essential for China's carbon neutrality, is likely to be faced with unprecedented challenges and opportunities. This study conducted scenario simulations to understand the role of the transport sector in achieving China's carbon neutral target in the context of the post-pandemic new normal. The simulation results showed that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be significantly reduced by lifestyle changes in a post-pandemic world, while the reduction potential would be partially offset by the negative effects stemming from a decline in public transport and car-sharing services. It was also found that the arrival of the post-pandemic new normal could help reduce the mitigation cost required to meet the carbon neutral target. Because of regional disparities in the reduction potential of CO2 emissions and mitigation costs, transport decarbonization toward carbon neutrality requires region-specific policy packages.

Profitable management of a finite herbicide resource

A financial model of a single farm is used to analyse the profitable management of a finite herbicide supply across time. Delaying resistance can be unprofitable because of the high efficacy and low cost of herbicides, relative to alternative control methods. It is financially attractive to maintain low weed populations, independent of resistance status. Thus, the cost of resistance mainly reflects the need to use more-expensive control options. Non-selective control complements chemical use and extends the susceptibility of weeds to a finite herbicide resource. The model shows that resistance can develop as part of profitable farm management, given the high relative advantage of chemical control. Uncertainty about future herbicide availability, system complexity, temporal volatility, mitigation cost, and short land tenure are primary constraints to efficient herbicide use. This can incur significant costs, through lost profits and accelerated resistance development.

A research and development investment strategy to achieve the Paris climate agreement

Climate stabilization requires the deployment of several low-carbon options, some of which are still not available at large scale or are too costly. Governments will have to make important decisions on how to incentivize Research and Development (R&D). Yet, current assessments of climate neutrality typically do not include research-driven innovation. Here, we link two integrated assessment models to study R&D investment pathways consistent with climate stabilization and suggest a consistent financing scheme. We focus on five low-carbon technologies and on energy efficiency measures. We find that timely R&D investment in these technologies lowers mitigation costs and induces positive employment effects. Achieving 2 °C (1.5 °C) requires a global 18% (64%) increase in cumulative low-carbon R&D investment relative to the reference scenario by mid-century. We show that carbon revenues are sufficient to both finance the additional R&D investment requirements and generate economic benefits by reducing distortionary taxation, such as payroll taxes, thus enhancing job creation.

Burden of cardiovascular disease attributable to long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 concentration and the cost–benefit analysis for the optimal control level

Environmental exposure to fine particulate matter PM2.5 is known to be associated with many hazardous health effects, including cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). To reduce the related health burden, it is crucial that policy-makers throughout the world set regulation levels according to their own evidence-based study outcomes. However, there appears to be a lack of decision-making methods for the control level of PM2.5 based on the burden of disease. In this study, 117,882 CVD-free participants (≥30-years-old) of the MJ Health Database were followed-up (for a median of 9 years) between 2007 and 2017. Each participant's residential address was matched to the 3× 3 km grid PM2.5 concentration estimates with a 5-year average for long-term exposure. We used a time-dependent nonlinear weight-transformation Cox regression model for the concentration–response function (CRF) between exposure to PM2.5 and CVD incidence. Town/district-specific PM2.5-attributable years of life in disability (YLDs) in CVD incidence were calculated by using the relative risk (RR) of the PM2.5 concentration level relative to the reference level. A cost–benefit analysis was proposed by assessing the trade-off between the gain in avoidable YLDs (given a reference level at u and considering mitigation cost) versus the loss in unavoidable YLDs by not setting at the lowest observed health effect level u0. The CRF varied across different areas with dissimilar PM2.5 exposure ranges. Areas with low PM2.5 concentrations and population sizes provided crucial information for the CVD health effect at the lower end. Additionally, women and older participants were more susceptible. The avoided town/district-specific YLDs in CVD incidence due to lower RRs ranged from 0 to 3000 person-years comparing the PM2.5 concentration levels in 2019 with the levels in 2011. Based on the cost–benefit analysis, an annual PM2.5 concentration of 13 μg/m3 would be optimal, which provides a guideline for the updated regulation level (currently at 15 μg/m3). The proposed cost–benefit analysis method may be applied to other countries/regions for regulation levels that are most suitable for their air pollution status and population health.

An integrated economic-ecological index based on satellite-derived carbon sequestration and carbon price: A case study during 2015–2020 in Shaanxi, China

Carbon sequestration reflecting vegetation productivity is essential for global carbon cycle and terrestrial ecosystems. Exploring the spatial and temporal variation of carbon sequestration and corresponding ecological values yields insights for policy formulation to mitigate carbon emission and achieve carbon neutrality. Hence, taking Shaanxi China as the case study, we developed an integrated index (named C-GDP) based on vegetation carbon sequestration estimated by the CASA model and carbon prices acquired from carbon trading market in China to explore tradeoffs between economic and ecological development. The spatiotemporal distributions of carbon sequestration and C-GDP were characterized using hotspot analysis and variation coefficient during 2015–2020. The estimated carbon sequestrations were assessed with promising accuracy, depicting high values in the south and low values in the north, with provincial averages of 1761.37gC/m2a. Temporally, carbon sequestrations increased with fluctuation between 2015 and 2020, with significant seasonality. Summertime, especially July, has the highest sequestration, while winter is the season with the lowest values. The C-GDP calculated by carbon sequestration and carbon price exhibited a distinct pattern with sequestration, with the highest C-GDP in Central Shaanxi and the lowest in the south. The multi-year provincial-mean C-GDP is 20.44 billion yuan. The C-GDP exhibited an increase trend with miniscule fluctuation, peaking at 23.66 billion yuan in 2020. The results imply the ecological value of carbon sequestration monetizing by carbon prices is much lower than economical value of production, suggesting that strict carbon policies, such as improving carbon prices or taxes, may be warranted for China because of high carbon mitigation costs.

Large carnivore conservation and traditional pastoralism: A case study on bear–reindeer predation mitigation measures

AbstractWhile wildlife and cultural preservation goals can be either complimentary or counteractive, the goals of large carnivore conservation and traditional pastoralist lifestyles are often at odds. Livestock depredation can negatively impact the economies of livestock herders, while subsequent lethal removals contribute to local carnivore population declines. Here, we collaborated with two Sámi reindeer herding communities (2010–2016) situated in Sweden's boreal forest to evaluate the efficacy and economic feasibility of three brown bear predation mitigation measures: corralling pregnant reindeer during parturition, lethal bear management removals, and public bear‐license hunting. Calving corrals increased survival for reindeer calves born to average‐sized females by 7%–15%, and by 14%–30% for calves born to small females. However, the realized cost of implementing calving corrals outweighed the financial gain for both our study areas (net losses ranged between €1111 and €6210 per calf saved from bear predation per year when using the updated 2021 calf value; 1€ [Euro] = US$1.1), as well as for almost every theoretical scenario we explored (net losses €234 and €13,995 per calf saved from bear predation). The exception was the theoretical scenario where small herding communities overlapped large bear populations, which crossed the breakeven efficacy bear/reindeer ratio of 13.5 bears/100 reindeer and had a potential net gain of €36 per saved calf. Similarly, the cost of lethal management removals of bears outweighed the potential financial gain from saved calves, with net losses between €75 and €239 per calf. License hunting, where the hunters voluntarily incur the monetary costs of removing bears, is in most cases the only economically viable mitigation measure where the cost of mitigation did not outweigh the financial gain from increased reindeer survival. While the annual public license hunt was the most cost‐effective mitigation measure, it may be less biologically effective, that is, bear hunting occurs in the fall and reindeer parturition the following spring which leaves time for the empty niche of harvested bears to be filled by survivors. Economically and biologically effective predation mitigation measures are key for promoting coexistence, and we suggest that potential mitigation measures should be studied in collaboration with local people.

On the road again: A study valuing wildlife crossings for wetland mitigation on State Road 40 in Volusia County, Florida

AbstractOver the past few decades, wildlife crossings have effectively reduced wildlife–vehicle collisions and improved habitat connectivity and genetic exchange for animals. However, wildlife crossings are expensive to construct, and the cost may discourage transportation agencies from implementing new wildlife crossings on public roadways. Additionally, transportation agencies and planners rarely consider the permitting and mitigation costs that wildlife crossings can require. A road profile must be raised to accommodate a wildlife underpass on many Florida roadways, particularly in low‐lying areas. Raising the road can result in new wetland impacts that would not occur but for the wildlife crossing. Consequently, new or more compensatory wetland mitigation may be required to satisfy § 404 of the Clean Water Act—a cost to the transportation agency and taxpayers. We used Florida's Uniform Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM) to calculate the value of functions in habitats before and after planned wildlife crossings on State Road 40 in Volusia County, Florida. The results of our analysis show that wildlife crossings will enhance the functions in remnant habitats adjacent to the wildlife crossings, generating wetland mitigation credits that reduced the amount of compensatory wetland mitigation required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Our case study provides a novel application of the UMAM in valuing wildlife crossings. We believe the UMAM can be used in cost–benefit models and transportation planning to determine the functional value of new wildlife crossings, thereby producing a monetary value that can incentivize new wildlife crossing projects.

A critical review on the biosynthesis, properties, applications and future outlook of green MnO2 nanoparticles

MnO2 nanoparticles have played a vital role in biomedical, catalysis, electrochemical and energy storage fields, but requiring toxic chemicals in the fabrication intercepts their applications. There is an increasing demand for biosynthesis of MnO2 nanoparticles using green sources such as plant species in accordance with the purposes of environmental mitigation and production cost reduction. Here, we review recent advancements on the use of natural compounds such as polyphenols, reducing sugars, quercetins, etc. Extracted directly from low-cost and available plants for biogenic synthesis of MnO2 nanoparticles. Role of these phytochemicals and formation mechanism of bio-medicated MnO2 nanoparticles are shed light on. MnO2 nanoparticles own small particle size, high crystallinity, diverse morphology, high surface area and stability. Thanks to higher biocompatibility, bio-mediated synthesized MnO2 nanoparticles exhibited better antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activity than chemically synthesized ones. In terms of wastewater treatment and energy storage, they also served as efficient adsorbents and catalyst. Moreover, several aspects of limitation and future outlook of bio-mediated MnO2 nanoparticles in the fields are analyzed. It is expected that the present work not only expands systematic understandings of synthesis methods, properties and applications MnO2 nanoparticles but also pave the way for the nanotechnology revolution in combination with green chemistry and sustainable development.

Impact of high capture rates and solvent and emission management strategies on the costs of full-scale post-combustion CO2 capture plants using long-term pilot plant data

Pilot plant campaigns are critical to our understanding of the performance of solvent-based post-combustion capture processes. During the ALIGN-CCUS project, long-term pilot plant runs in the Niederaussem lignite-fired power plant were conducted, that aimed to investigate solvent degradation and emissions management and capture rates beyond 90%. Based on these pilot runs, we here investigated the cost effect of amine degradation and emissions for two solvent systems, MEA and CESAR1, as well as the effect of incorporating degradation and emission mitigation strategies and the effect of higher carbon capture rates. We found that for lignite-fired power plants, CESAR1 is not per se a cheaper solvent system than MEA when actual solvent losses (or their mitigation measures) are considered, contrary to what earlier studies have suggested. It may, therefore, be just as good a benchmark as MEA would be, as long as all degradation and emission (mitigation) costs are included in their cost estimates. Second, MEA reclaiming with ion exchange resins and CESAR1 emission mitigation measures (dry-bed and/or turbulent flue gas pre-treatment) do not increase the cost of CO2 capture or electricity. If anything, our work suggests these measures reduce costs marginally, owing to lower solvent make up, offsetting the additional capital and operational costs. Finally, the cost effect of capture rates beyond 90% proves minimal (the cost of CO2 capture and the levelized cost of electricity increase by 3% and 5%, respectively, when moving from 90% to 98% CO2 capture rate), indicating solvent-based CO2 capture may also be a useful mitigation strategy in societies transitioning towards net-zero-CO2 emissions.

A multimodel analysis of post-Glasgow climate targets and feasibility challenges

The COP26 Glasgow process resulted in many countries strengthening their 2030 emissions reduction targets and announcing net-zero pledges for 2050–2070 but it is not clear how this would impact future warming. Here, we use four diverse integrated assessment models (IAMs) to assess CO2 emission trajectories in the near- and long-term on the basis of national policies and pledges, combined with a non-CO2 infilling model and a simple climate model to assess the temperature implications. We also consider the feasibility of national long-term pledges towards net-zero. While near-term pledges alone lead to warming above 2 °C, the addition of long-term pledges leads to emissions trajectories compatible with a future well below 2 °C, across all four IAMs. However, while IAM heterogeneity translates to diverse decarbonization pathways towards long-term targets, all modelled pathways indicate several feasibility concerns, relating to the cost of mitigation and the rates and scales of deployed technologies and measures. Although many countries have strengthened their emissions reduction pledges, their ability to limit the warming outcomes is still in question. A multimodel analysis demonstrates that these trajectories are in line with the 2 °C target but countries probably face feasibility challenges to achieve them.

Climate change mitigation costs reduction caused by socioeconomic-technological transitions

Numerical scenarios generated by Integrated Assessment Models describing future energy and land-use systems that attain climate change mitigation goals have been considered important sources of guidance for climate policymaking. The climate change mitigation cost is one of the concerns in the emissions reduction efforts. However, how to moderate climate change mitigation costs is not well understood. Here, we describe the conditions needed for reducing or taking away climate change mitigation costs by implementing socioeconomic-technological transitions into numerical scenario assessment. The results indicate that integration of multiple socioeconomic-technological transitions would be effective, including lowering energy demand, shifting to an environmentally friendly food system, energy technology progress and the stimulus of capital formation that is additionally imposed to the normal carbon pricing mechanism. No single measure is sufficient to fully take away mitigation costs. These results indicate that cross-sectoral transformation is needed, as the realisation of all measures depends on effective government policies as well as uncertain social and technological changes.

Empowering DDoS Attack Mitigation with Programmable Switches

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have long been the most severe and destructive attack on modern networks. Some solutions place several middleboxes that run security-oriented network functions (SNFs) in the network to defend against DDoS attacks. However, middleboxes are proprietary and fixed-function, making them costly and inflexible when handling attack dynamics. Another class of solutions exploits the capability of software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) to run virtualized SNFs on commodity servers. This reduces the cost of DDoS attack mitigation while enabling high flexibility by dynamically removing or adding SNF instances. However, this class of solutions sacrifices packet processing performance and incurs non-trivial end-to-end latency, which is unacceptable for many latency-sensitive Internet services. Recently, the emergence of programmable switches brings a promising alternative solution: arbitrary SNFs can be directly performed in line-rate ASIC pipelines of programmable switches, enabling low-cost, flexible, and high-performance DDoS attack mitigation. In this article, we present an illustrative survey of recent solutions that leverage programmable switches to provide DDoS attack mitigation. Our survey can help understand how to make full use of the benefits of programmable switches to defend against DDoS attacks.

Exploring risks and benefits of overshooting a 1.5 °C carbon budget over space and time

Temperature targets of the Paris Agreement limit global net cumulative emissions to very tight carbon budgets. The possibility to overshoot the budget and offset near-term excess emissions by net-negative emissions is considered economically attractive as it eases near-term mitigation pressure. While potential side effects of carbon removal deployment are discussed extensively, the additional climate risks and the impacts and damages have attracted less attention. We link six models for an integrative analysis of the climatic, environmental and socio-economic consequences of temporarily overshooting a carbon budget consistent with the 1.5 °C temperature target along the cause-effect chain from emissions and carbon removals to climate risks and impact. Global climatic indicators such as CO2-concentration and mean temperature closely follow the carbon budget overshoot with mid-century peaks of 50 ppmv and 0.35 °C, respectively. Our findings highlight that investigating overshoot scenarios requires temporally and spatially differentiated analysis of climate, environmental and socioeconomic systems. We find persistent and spatially heterogeneous differences in the distribution of carbon across various pools, ocean heat content, sea-level rise as well as economic damages. Moreover, we find that key impacts, including degradation of marine ecosystem, heat wave exposure and economic damages, are more severe in equatorial areas than in higher latitudes, although absolute temperature changes being stronger in higher latitudes. The detrimental effects of a 1.5 °C warming and the additional effects due to overshoots are strongest in non-OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Constraining the overshoot inflates CO2 prices, thus shifting carbon removal towards early afforestation while reducing the total cumulative deployment only slightly, while mitigation costs increase sharply in developing countries. Thus, scenarios with carbon budget overshoots can reverse global mean temperature increase but imply more persistent and geographically heterogeneous impacts. Overall, the decision about overshooting implies more severe trade-offs between mitigation and impacts in developing countries.

Determination of optimum technologies implementation scenarios toward net zero emissions in palm oil biodiesel production

Increasing bioenergy use is one of the strategies for achieving net zero emissions by 2060. Palm oil biodiesel is a type of bioenergy that has the potential to be applied to achieve this target. On the other side, there are several sources of emission along the palm oil biodiesel (POB) production chain. These potential emissions can be reduced by applying various technologies along the production chain. This study aims to develop a model for reducing emissions from palm oil biodiesel. The model developed was a combination of life cycle assessment and genetic algorithms. Two objectives are defined in this model, namely: maximizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction through technology implementation and minimizing mitigation costs in its implementation. A combination of technology implementations was represented as chromosomes generated through crossover and mutation. By running more than 1000 iterations, a combination of optimal technology implementation can be obtained with the smallest emissions and minimal mitigation costs.

Financing needs to achieve Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement in Caribbean Small Island Developing States.

Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Given high mitigation and adaptation costs and constrained domestic finances, they seek international funding to meet their climate objectives. This paper investigates Caribbean SIDS perspectives on the role of international climate finance in addressing climate change and its effectiveness in meeting climate goals. The paper first explored the climate financing needs of sixteen Caribbean SIDS through a content analysis of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It then compares the climate finance needs of the region with international climate finance commitments received by examining climate finance trends using data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee's (DAC) Creditor Reporting System (CRS). The study revealed large gaps in estimating the climate finance needs of the region, as well as important patterns in the way climate finance is being distributed across mitigation, adaptation and overlap activity; principal versus significant climate objective; recipient country; sector; and source and type of funding. These findings are useful to help countries make decisions about how international climate finance should be used, and how its impacts should be evaluated and a basis for climate finance negotiations and dialogue with bilateral development partners and multilateral climate funds, and to assess whether available funds are being put to good use and identify problems that need to be addressed.